Saving culprits?: IESCO officials protest against colleagues’ arrest

Police says it is a move to pressurise them

RAWALPINDI:

Afraid of being next in line, Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) officials protested outside Saddar Bairuni police station on Monday against the arrest of their colleagues allegedly for power theft.

Led by Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (IESCO) workers union president, Javed Baloch, hundreds of protesters blocked the road for traffic, chanting slogans against the police. They demanded immediate suspension of Saddar Bairooni and Naseerabad police stations’ station house officers (SHO) Jahangir Bhatti and Chaudhry Jamil and demanded their colleagues be set free.

The SHOs while talking to The Express Tribune rejected the allegations of harassment by IESCO officials, saying they called them for investigation. They added that while Wapda officials wrongly implicate innocent people in fake cases, they are the ones actually involved in power theft.



Giving one such example, Chaudhry Jamil said the task force registered a case against a bakery owner on Misrial Road for power theft but during the course of investigation it was found that he was not guilty.

“I just asked the official who registered the case to come to the police station so he could be included in the investigation. I have neither locked him up nor have I interrogated him,” he said.

The second SHO also had a similar story to tell. He said, as reported by Wapda officials, the police found no evidence of electricity theft against two suspects, a filling station owner on Adiala Road and an owner of a plastic factory, adding that when the laboratory tests of Wapda meters were conducted, it was proved that they had not been tampered with.

“I just invited the officials over to ask why they had lodged false FIRs against innocent citizens,” Jahangir said, adding that “Meter readers are expert in locking meters and power theft is almost impossible without the cooperation of someone from Wapda,” he said.

The police officials said the IESCO workers not only refused to come to the police station but also staged a farcical demonstration in the middle of the city to pressurise them.

Meanwhile, Magistrate Kamran Khan, Headquarters SP Muhammad Masud Raza and ASP Haroon reached the scene and after negotiations, managed to disperse them.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2013.